The interplay between loneliness, mindfulness and presence of meaning. Does the search for meaning matter?

The aim of the study was to investigate the interplay between loneliness and mindfulness in predicting presence of meaning (POM ), taking into consideration the additional role of the search for meaning (SFM). A sample of 415 participants from Poland aged 18 - 55 (M = 27.88; SD = 8.66) completed a set of 3 questionnaires: the De Jong-Gierveld Loneliness Scale, the Mindful Attention and Awareness Scale, and Meaning in Life Questionnaire. Our results suggest that mindfulness partially mediated the relationship between loneliness and POM. This effect was moderated by SFM. Specifically, an indirect effect was found among participants with medium- and high-levels of search for meaning but not in the participants with a low level of this variable. Furthermore, it turned out that SFM enhanced the relationship between mindfulness and POM. These results are discussed in the context of the evolutionary theory of loneliness, meaning-making mechanisms of mindfulness and schema-like properties of SFM.